In the decennial census and the American Community Survey, increasing numbers of people are writing in "American" as their national ancestry. By doing this, they are cutting their ancestral ties to all other homelands and ethnicities and taking a stand as authentic representatives of the American nation. In the mix of American cultures, they are laying claim to being members of the primary and irreducible people.

In Native Americans, James S. Robbins describes the foundations of the American ideal, the core set of beliefs that define American values, and the way in which these values have been undermined and corrupted. He also makes the case for the benefits of an objective standard of what American means, and the benefit in returning to the values that turned America from an undeveloped wilderness to the most exceptional country in the world.